CNET First Look

Promise's Pegasus2 is the fastest storage device to date

Hi, guys.
Dong Ngo is here, and this is the all new Pegasus2 from Promise.
Now, this is the very first Thunderbolt 2 storage device on the market.
If you're noticing, I'm holding it-- the big box here with one arm.
That's not because I'm strong, because of the empty box.
Because the actual device itself was so heavy, I do need both arms.
Right here.
And now, I'm gonna skip the gym.
Now, this particular one here
is the Pegasus2 R8 because it have 8 internal drive on the inside.
There's also the R4 and R6 that have a 4 or 6 drive on the inside, respectively.
Now, this one here is the upgrade to the previous Pegasus drive, such as the R6 that I also have right here.
There you go.
You know, I'm really gonna skip the gym today, like I did yesterday.
Now, the only difference between the two is this one here support Thunderbolt, and this one right here support Thunderbolt
2. On the back here, you're gonna see there are two Thunderbolt ports.
You only need one to make it work with a computer, but the other one, you can use to connect another Thunderbolt device to it.
You can daisy-chain about six devices together with our performance liquidation.
Now, at 20 gigabit per second, Thunderbolt 2 is very fast.
But there's a catch.
You do need new computer that support it.
And for that reason, I have to use this brand new MacBook Pro with Retina screen here to test it, instead of the
other MacBook Pro that's just slightly less new.
Now, in my testing, the Pegasus2 here was actually very fast, offering the sustained real [unk] speed of some 360 megabyte per second for writing, and some 380 megabyte per second for reading.
That is actually very fast, and almost double that of the older Pegasus.
Now, this device here is a hardware RAID system, and that means you can configure its internal drive into all the RAID configuration available for the amount of drive
it has.
For example, the R8 here support RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID 50.
It includes an software utility for you to manage and build the RAID.
It's very easy to do.
It's also very easy to replace the drive by yourself on the front right here.
And despite the large size and also very large fans here on the back, it's actually very quiet.
Now, the Pegasus2 is clearly a desktop storage device and it
didn't work very well with the laptop, in the sense that when the laptop go to Sleep mode, it would disconnect by itself, and when she wakes up, it would not reconnect by itself.
The only way for you to reconnect it, you have to unplug the power and plug it back in.
In an always on environment, that is not a big deal.
But for that, you need a Mac Pro, which is a lot more expensive than the MacBook Pro.
Now, for most consumer, I would say that this storage device is overkill.
But if you want speed or any 4K video in real time, this is it.
You'd be very happy with it.
In a sense, to prove that.
money cannot really buy happiness unless with a few thousand dollars.
That's because a few thousand dollar is exactly what you need to get it.
Now, this top-tier R8 here costs some $4,600 for 32 terabyte or $3,600 for 24 terabyte.
It can also offer the R6 or the R4 for as low as $1,500 for 8 terabyte.
Now, for more on these, check out my full review on CNET.com.
And since this is my last video of 2013, Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year, everybody.
And you can see me next year, and you're gonna be happy when you do.
And that's because I'm Dong Ngo, and this has been the first look at the Pegasus2 from Promise.

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